And we're going to read from
verse one, Acts chapter 20 and verse one. And after the uproar was ceased,
Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and departed
for to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those
parts and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. and there abode three months,
and when the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sail into
Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. And there
accompanied him into Asia, Sopater of Berea, and of the Thessalonians,
Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus,
and of Asia, Tychicus, and Trophimus. These going before tarried for
us at Troas. And we sailed away from Philippi
after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to
Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the
first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break
bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow,
and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many
lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.
And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being
fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching,
he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and
was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on
him, and embracing him said, trouble not yourselves, for his
life is in him. When he therefore was come up
again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while,
even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the
young man alive and were not a little comforted. And we went
before to ship and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take
in Paul, for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And when he met with us at Assos,
we took him in and came to my... I practised this word before. I practised it. Mytilene. And we sailed thence, and came
the next day over against Chios. And the next day we arrived at
Samos, and tarried at Trogilium, and the next day we came to Miletus. For Paul had determined to sail
by Ephesus because he would not spend the time in Asia. For he
hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day
of Pentecost. Amen. May God bless to us. the reading from his precious
word. I think this is a very interesting
and informative little passage here that we have. It contains
many facts, it contains many figures, it contains many places,
and we find that it's also a wonderful story of miraculous power. The first thing that I want to
notice about this is that Paul wasn't chased away from Ephesus. This riot had taken place. We
spent a long time in the last chapter thinking about the riot
that had taken place, but we know that already the apostle
had been sending people into Macedonia to prepare for his
coming there. And so it wasn't that he left
Ephesus, as it were, with his tail between his legs, anxious
about the trouble. This was his plan to visit Europe
again, and he left in a decent and orderly manner. He called
unto him the disciples, he embraced them, and he departed to go into
Macedonia. And we're told that as he journeyed
there, as he went from Ephesus back up, headed north up the
side of what is now Turkey, and then crossed into Europe, to
Philippi, and then down to Thessalonica and Corinth. These were the cities
that, again, he was planning to visit back in Europe, or in
Macedonia, as the Bible calls it. And it's interesting to see
when we look at verse 3 in this passage, just that months of
time can be used up, as it were, in just a couple of sentences. So we're not necessarily finding
an easily recognizable timescale when we look at these passages
in the Acts of the Apostles. Sometimes there are weeks, sometimes
there are months, sometimes there are years transpire. in just
a verse or a couple of verses. And indeed, we find, do we not,
that there's some truth even in the way in which life unfolds
for all of us. I was just reflecting on that
as I was thinking about it, how that a lifetime's ministry in
the gospel can become a mere footnote in a history book, or
how an inscription on a gravestone It is all that is left to remember
of the ministry of God's faithful men down through the years. But we should not forget that
we are where we are today because faithful men, and indeed, let
us not forget the upholding faithful women also, and those around
about them who were supporters and enablers, maintained a gospel
ministry. down through the years by which
we inherit those blessings that we possess today. There were
some Jews who wanted to put an end to Paul's life. And we are told that they discovered
that Paul, having travelled down through Macedonia, visited these
cities that we've mentioned, then planned to take a boat and
sail back to Syria. They learned about that. and
they laid in wait in order to kill him. They were like highwaymen
or assassins and they wanted to trap him and to kill him. Paul learned by some means about
their plot and so he took the long way home. He headed back
up through Europe back into Asia and then the plan was to take
a boat from there and just go around the coast and find his
way back to Jerusalem in order to be there for the Passover
feast. Coming to Troas as that journey
unfolded, we find that he gathered with the church for communion
on the first day of the week. And Paul preached long into the
night. There's something lovely about
the Lord's people meeting on the Lord's day and gathering
around the Lord's table. And whether we think about that
as far as the elements are concerned and the bread and the wine, and
our fellowship together in that, or whether we think perhaps a
little more metaphorically that we are gathering around the table
of the Lord, the table that he has established in the wilderness
for us. as we come and meet together
and eat together and grow together through the preaching of the
gospel. So Paul met with these believers
in Troas in order to share with them the Lord's Supper. And the
Lord our Saviour is to be remembered and he is to be worshipped. And
as we gather together on these occasions, it is with those two
great principles in view, that we might remember him and what
he has done and that we might worship him with gratitude and
praise for all his goodness to us. The accident at the extended
service that was going on was serious and distressing. And I imagine that there are
many who have had a smile about the way in which this story unfolds. But here is a young man, and
he's just a youth, perhaps little more than a boy, And he is overtaken
by sleep as children and young people often are. Full of energy,
full of bounce. And then suddenly they just seem
to fall asleep. I've noticed it so often in the
lives of young people, they can almost sleep anywhere. And Eutychus
is an example of that. He fell asleep sitting on a window
ledge. and it's a moment of great distress. It must have been for that church
in Troas. Here is a family with a young
family and they're meeting together to worship God. Can you imagine
how his parents would have felt when that scream went up, when
that cry went up as the young boy toppled and then the thud? As he hit the ground three floors
below. What a terrible thing it is when
we see these accidents, these hardships coming into our experiences,
whether it's our own family or the families that we know. I
used to worry so often. We had a church previously that
the front door was literally two, three yards from the main
road and you could just hear the vehicles going up and down
and I was always concerned at the end of the service that one
of these youngsters was going to open the door and run right
out there in front of a truck or a tractor or a vehicle. This is the reality of what must
have been in the hearts of these people here at Troas on this
occasion. The young boy is dead, the youth
is dead, and we can perhaps enter a little bit into the sorrow
of that occasion. Now, I guess we could point to
lessons about sleeping in church, but that's hardly appropriate
given the outcome of this event. It's sadness, not censure, that
is appropriate here. And let us just take note, perhaps,
in passing, that anything that Satan uses to distract the Lord's
people from their worship is to be condemned. but rather let
us take this occasion to thank the Lord that instead of this
accident being a source of sadness and reproach against the gospel
for how the tongues would have wagged. Oh, they were all meeting
together in their new church for their new Jesus and their
new religion. Well, look what happened to them.
If that's not a curse from the gods, then what is? But rather
than the gospel being a reproach or being reproached, we see it
as an example of the goodness of God. And a miracle of grace
was effected that day or that night by the intercession of
the apostle and the power of God manifested. And that is the
message perhaps that needs to be reinforced out of this little
passage. It's a picture, it's an object
lesson to us also. Because except the Lord opened
the eyes of all men and women, as he opened the eyes of this
young lad who had fallen and was slain thereby. We will all be unconscious of
gospel truth. We will all remain dead in our
sins. But here is a miracle of life
giving proportion. And this is the necessity for
all who will be saved. I hope you don't all fall out
of windows, but I do hope you all are brought to life by the
power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a final
point that I just want to mention as we're leaving off here because
it's a little insight. that shows us something of the
commonplace that is also occurring in this situation. We have moved
from a miracle, this young boy fallen from the third loft, brought
up alive to the joy and thanksgiving of the whole congregation, what
a wonderful miracle, to the commonplace. And what is that commonplace?
Paul sends his friends to get a ship and to meet him further
along the coast. Why did he do that? I wonder
why he didn't go with his... They were all in Troas. The harbour
was in Troas. The boat was in Troas. He sent
them to the harbour to get a boat and he said, and while you're
doing that, I'm going to walk in the other direction and I
want you to pick me up at Assos. I want to walk by myself. And here's the apostle communing
privately with the Lord. He had preached all that Lord's
Day. He had preached into the night.
He was preaching at midnight. He did not sleep for the rest
of that night, sharing with those people in Troas. And now, to
get a little quietness and a little peace, a little communion with
the Lord, a little opportunity to prepare his own heart, he
takes this time out and he heads down to Assos on foot. He was reflecting, he was praying,
he was gathering his thoughts, no doubt. But so preoccupied
was he with these great duties of the apostle that he forgot
to take his coat and he forgot to take his books. and he forgot
to take his parchments. You can almost just imagine the
situation. He tells his friends to go and
get a boat. They collect everything together.
They say to him, we'll see you down at Assos. And he walks away
and he leaves his coat and his books lying at Troas. And he
writes a letter much later on in his life. He writes a letter
from Rome, where he's in prison, to his friend Timothy. And he
says to his friend Timothy, because he's cold, and he's remembering
that cloak that he left in Troas, he says, the cloak that I left
at Troas with Carpus, bring when thou comest. Bring it with thee
and the books, but especially the parchments. So here we get
a little insight into the apostle's daily activity. He preached a
glorious gospel. He raises a young man from the
dead and he forgets to pick up his coat. Such insights ought
to endear us to these men, because they're just like us. Blessed
men, useful men, but tried men and weary men, forgetful men,
just men. The Lord takes ordinary men and
women. and he accomplishes extraordinary
things by them. And that's the God we trust in. Amen.